A Mani Rathnamfilm is always a special event. It’s been like that for over a decade now, ever since the man announced his presence with a bang with his Kamal Hassan starrer ‘Nayagan’. Be it the story he chooses or the setting, the fact always remains that the viewer is treated to very different material packaged with stunning Visuals and subtly captivating background scores! He simply extracts the best out of each person on the set!
Guruis the latest offering by Mani, and his rather desperate attempt at getting universal approval. Though his last two movies were acclaimed critically by a large number, the majority consensus was against the movie.
Partly because Mani had dared to be really radical and experimentative, alienating the common man who leans more towards the feel-good entertainment package!
Guru is the story of the rise of Gurukant Desai(Abhishek Bhachan)from a villager to a primary industrialist in the nation. The movie moves through the lifespan of the character and deals with the trials and tribulations he undergoes to reach that position and(to a large extent) retain that. Obvious references to industrial giant Ambani are strewn throughout the movie.
Abhishek declares In the first reel of the film ‘My destiny is already written’, while he intends to start his own business. This bullish confidence is striking throughout the film and defines Guru’s character.
The tale is an inspiring one, tracing Guru’s life as he rises from a jobless villager to being a legendary businessman. The focus is more on the events that takes place during and after his rise, than on his perspective on his life. This to me, is a personal disappointment with the movie. The movie starts and ends as a narration by Guru, but strangely maintains a third-person point of view for the rest of the time!
Aishwaraya Rai plays his wife Sujatha, the faithful wife who accompanies him through his life journey. Mithun Chakravarthy is a honest newspaper owner who believes in publishing the truth even if it works against Guru who is like a son to him. Madhavan is a reporter for his newspaper, who takes it upon himself to expose Guru’s underhand tactics in Business.
The first half deals with his determined rise to the top, while the second half concentrates almost entirely on the seesawing conflict between Guru and the newspaper wallahs! We don’t get to see the ins and outs of how GuruKant creates his empire and the tactics he uses, though. What we get to see in large doses are the after-effects of the above. This is the way the director has chosen the final script to flow, and it is precisely this that prevents it from rising more than a few notches above a normal good Bollywood entertainer package!
The acting is first-rate by everyone in the film. Abhishek has proved that he can handle mature themes like these with elan! His middle age look is a revelation! He has even worked on his mannerisms meticulously. The courtroom scene is sure to win him a few awards by itself! The young abhishek, with his clean shaven look (ah! At last someone forced him to drop his rugged ‘Bluffmaster’ and KANK look!) would tug a few hearts for sure!
Madhavan is the surprise element in the plot. He has lost a lot of weight and suits the rle of a reporter well. He maintains a calm composure while exposing Guru’s deeds and manages to impress by his quiet charms and dignity. Vidya Balan as his wife has a mainly filler role, but manages to get our attention through her vivacious personality.
Mithun Chakravarthy is at his vintage best! He has subtly underplayed his role and given weight to the plot.
Last but not the least, Aishwarya Rai has given her best again for Mani Rathnam(after her first Mani Rathnam movie Iruvar)! Though her role has no major significance in the plot, she excels in every scene! Her rain dance though is purely for the masses and has no place in the narration!
The back ground music is really subtle and adds fire to the narration.
The director is known for his sensitive handling of romantic scenes, and in Guru, he has exceeded himself! The chemistry between Abhishek and Aishwarya stands out, with the finely written scenes between them providing enough fuel!
Though the movie captivates you to a large extent, there are few issues that I found could have been addressed to make this a rivetting masterpiece.
· The change between the different phases of Guru’s life is a little too abrupt. as in, when Guru starts his first business, the next immediate scene is him driving a benz car. Agreed that a journey of a few decades can’t be composed in 3 hrs, but the screen time could have been better used to provide a seamless flow of events.
· As the movie proceeds, the focus is less on the point of view of Guru.Eespecially since it starts out as a narrative by the now old man, one would expect the movie to be a hindsight look by Guru at his life. We don’t get to see the character Guru from a first-hand perspective, and that, by itself is not a flaw that many would notice. But nevertheless, it could have provided a strong emotional thread and added great impact to the tale.
· The speech that Guru delivers in the end, detailing his innocence and how he was forced into bribing and bullying his way to success doesn’t really address the issues that he was accused for, in the first place. Madhavan exposes his activities like misleading the public with false sales deeds, boosting the stock price through artificial means, evading export taxes, etc. Guru however conveniently avoids these issues and talks purely in a tone that portrays him as a messiah to the masses. For cinematic effect, this works fine, but is nevertheless a loose end in the product!
Mani Rathnam has compromised on his rugged & radical storytelling abilities to create a commercial mix that is bound to entertain all walks of people as well! Gone are the marked defiance of conventional story-telling structure as seen in Yuva, and the abstract concepts & narration of Dil Se…
Guru, as I see, is a collection of brilliantly executed sequences, minus the emotional thread that could have binded the whole movie better.
This is a case where Mani Rathnam the director overtakes Mani Rathnam the writer. The scenes just flow, with cinematographer Rajiv Menon displaying his career best work!
That said, there are enough dramatic elements infused into Guru to keep it from being a lengthy documentary-style biopic! By keeping the plot more action-based and less on abstract elements, the movie succeeds in keeping the viewer guessing the next sequence right till the end!
The songs are ok, but act more as speed breakers in the narration. But they were needed to keep the movie from getting too serious…
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